Miss Peck had spent a lonely day in her old farm-house, high on a long
Vermont hillside that sloped toward the west. She was able for an hour
at noon to overlook the fog in the valley below, and pitied the people
in the village whose location she could distinguish only by means of
the church steeple which pricked through the gray mist, like a buoy set
over a dangerous reef. During this brief time, when the sun was
apparently shining for her benefit alone, she reflected proudly upon
the advantage of living on high land, but in the early afternoon, when
the fog began to rise slowly, and at last shut her in, as well as the
rest of the world, she was conscious of uncommon depression of spirits.

"I might as well face it now as any time," she said aloud, as she
lighted her clean kerosene lamp and put it on the table. "Eliza Peck!
just set down and make it blazing clear how things stand with you, and
what you're going to do in regard to 'em! 'Tain't no use matching your
feelin's to the weather, without you've got reason for it." And she
twitched the short curtains across the windows so that their brass
rings squeaked on the wires, opened the door for the impatient cat that
was mewing outside, and then seated herself in the old rocking-chair at
the table end.

It is quite a mistake to believe that people who live by themselves
find every day a lonely one. Miss Peck and many other solitary persons
could assure us that it is very seldom that they feel their lack of
companionship. As the habit of living alone grows more fixed, it
becomes confusing to have other people about, and seems more or less
bewildering to be interfered with by other people's plans and
suggestions. Only once in a while does the feeling of solitariness
become burdensome, or a creeping dread and sense of defenselessness
assail one's comfort. But when Miss Peck was aware of the approach of
such a mood she feared it, and was prepared to fight it with her best
weapon of common-sense.

She was much given to talking aloud, as many solitary persons are;
not merely talking to herself in the usual half-conscious way, but
making her weaker self listen to severe comment and pointed
instruction. Miss Peck the less was frequently brought to trial in this
way by Miss Peck the greater, and when it was once announced that
justice must be done, no amount of quailing or excuse averted the
process of definite conviction.

This evening she turned the light up to its full brightness,
reached for her knitting-work, lifted it high above her lap for a
moment, as her favorite cat jumped up to its evening quarters; then she
began to rock to and fro with regularity and decision. "`Tis all
nonsense," she said, as if she were addressing some one greatly her
inferior - "'Tis all nonsense for you to go on this way, Elizy Peck!
you're better off than you've been this six year, if you only had sense
to feel so."

There was no audible reply, and the speaker evidently mistook the
silence for unconvinced stubbornness.

"If ever there was a woman who was determined to live by other
folks' wits, and to eat other folks' dinners, 'twas and is your
lamented brother's widder, Harri't Peck - Harri't White that was. She's
claimed the town's compassion till it's good as run dry, and she's
thought that you, Elizy Peck, a hard-workin' and self-supportin' woman,
was made for nothin' but her use and comfort. Ever since your father
died and you've been left alone you've had her for a clog to your
upward way. Six years you've been at her beck an' call, and now that a
respectable man, able an' willing to do for her, has been an' fell in
love with her, and shouldered her and all her whims, and promised to do
for the children as if they was his own, you've been grumpin' all day,
an' I'd like to know what there is to grump about!"

There was a lack of response even to this appeal to reason, and the
knitting-needles clicked in dangerous nearness to the old cat's ears,
so that they twitched now and then, and one soft paw unexpectedly
revealed its white curving claws.

"Yes," said Miss Peck, presently, in a more lenient tone, "I s'pose
'tis the children you're thinking of most. I declare I should like to
see that Tom's little red head, and feel it warm with my two hands this
minute! There's always somethin' hopeful in havin' to do with children,
'less they come of too bad a stock. Grown folks - well, you can make
out to grin an' bear 'em if you must; but like 's not young ones'll
turn out to be somebody, and what you do for 'em may count towards it.
There's that Tom, he looks just as his father used to, and there ain't
a day he won't say somethin' real pleasant, and never sees the
difference betwixt you an' somebody handsome. I expect they'll spile
him - you don't know what kind o' young ones they'll let him play with,
nor how they'll let him murder the king's English, and never think o'
boxin' his ears. Them big factory towns is all for eatin' and clothes.
I'm glad you was raised in a good old academy town, if 'twas the Lord's
will to plant you in the far outskirts. Land, how Harri't did smirk at
that man! I will say she looked pretty - 'tis hard work and worry makes
folks plain like me - I believe she's fared better to be left a widder
with three child'n, and everybody saying how hard it was, an' takin'
holt, than she would if brother had lived and she'd had to stir herself
to keep house and do for him. You've been the real widder that Tom left
- you've mourned him, and had your way to go alone - not she! The
colonel's lady," repeated Miss Peck, scornfully - "that's what sp'ilt
her. She never could come down to common things, Mis' Colonel Peck!
Well, she may have noble means now, but she's got to be spoke of as
Mis' Noah Pigley all the rest of her days. Not that I'm goin' to fling
at any man's accident of name," said the just Eliza, in an apologetic
tone. "I did want to adopt little Tom, but 'twas to be expected he'd
object - a boy's goin' to be useful in his business, and poor Tommy's
the likeliest. I would have 'dopted him out an' out, and he shall have
the old farm anyway. But oh dear me, he's all spoilt for farming now,
is little Tom, unless I can make sure of him now and then for a good
long visit in summer time.

"Summer an' winter; I s'pose you're likely to live a great many
years, Elizy," sighed the good woman. "All sole alone, too! There, I've
landed right at the startin' point," - and the kitchen was very still
while some dropped stitches in a belated stocking for the favorite
nephew were obscured by a mist of tears like the fog outside. There was
no more talking aloud, for Miss Peck fell into a revery about old days
and the only brother who had left his little household in her care and
marched to the war whence for him there was to be no return. She had
remembered very often, with a great sense of comfort, a message in one
of his very last letters. "Tell Eliza that she's more likely to be
promoted than I am," he said (when he had just got his step of Major);
"she's my superior officer, however high I get, and now I've heard what
luck she's had with the haying, I appoint her Brigadier-General for
gallantry in the field." How poor Tom's jokes had kept their courage up
even when they were most anxious! Yes, she had made many sacrifices of
personal gain, as every good soldier must. She had meant to be a
school-teacher. She had the gift for it, and had studied hard in her
girlhood. One thing after another had kept her at home, and now she
must stay here - her ambitions were at an end. She would do what good
she could among her neighbors, and stand in her lot and place. It was
the first time she had found to think soberly about her life, for her
sister-in-law and the children had gone to their new home within a few
days, and since then she had stifled all power of proper reflection by
hard work at setting the house in order and getting in her winter
supplies. "Thank Heaven the house and place belong to me," she said in
a decisive tone. "'Twas wise o' father to leave it so - and let her
have the money. She'd left me no peace till I moved off if I'd only
been half-owner; she's always meant to get to a larger place - but what
I want is real promotion."

The Peck farm-house was not only on a by-road that wandered among
the slopes of the hills, but it was at the end of a long lane of its
own. There was rarely any sound at night except from the winds of
heaven or the soughing of the neighboring pine-trees. By day, there was
a beautiful inspiriting outlook over the wide country from the
farm-house windows, but on such a night as this the darkness made an
impenetrable wall. Miss Peck was not afraid of it; on the contrary, she
had a sense of security in being shut safe into the very heart of the
night. By day she might be vexed by intruders, by night they could
scarcely find her - her bright light could not be seen from the road.
If she were to wither away in the old gray house like an unplanted
kernel in its shell, she would at least wither undisturbed. Her sorrow
of loneliness was not the fear of molestation. She was fearless enough
at the thought of physical dangers.

The evening did not seem so long as she expected - a glance at her
reliable time-keeper told her at last that it was already past eight
o'clock, and her eyes began to feel heavy. The fire was low, the fog
was making its presence felt even in the house, for the autumn night
was chilly, and Miss Peck decided that when she came to the end of the
stitches on a certain needle she would go to bed. To-morrow, she meant
to cut her apples for drying, a duty too long delayed. She had sent
away some of her best fruit that day to make the annual barrel of cider
with which she provided herself, more from habit than from real need of
either the wholesome beverage or its resultant vinegar. "If this fog
lasts, I've got to dry my apples by the stove," she thought,
doubtfully, and was conscious of a desire to survey the weather from
the outer doorway before she slept. How she missed Harriet and the
children! - though they had been living with her only for a short time
before the wedding, and since the half-house they had occupied in the
village had been let. The thought of bright-eyed, red-headed little Tom
still brought the warm tears very near to falling. He had cried
bitterly when he went away. So had his mother - at least, she held up
her pocket-handkerchief. Miss Peck never had believed in Harriet's
tears.

Out of the silence of the great hillslope came the dull sound of a
voice, and as Miss Peck sprang from her chair to the window, dropping
the sleeping cat in a solid mass on the floor, she recognized the noise
of a carriage. Her heart was beating provokingly; she was tired by the
excitement of the last few days. She did not remember this, but was
conscious of being startled in an unusual way. It must be some strange
crisis in her life; she turned and looked about the familiar kitchen as
if it were going to be altogether swept away. "Now, you needn't be
afraid that Pigley's comin' to bring her back, Elizy Peck!" she assured
herself with grim humor in that minute's apprehension of disaster.

A man outside spoke sternly to his horse. Eliza stepped quickly to
the door and opened it wide. She was not afraid of the messenger, only
of the message.

"Hold the light so 's I can see to tie this colt," said a familiar
voice; "it's as dark as a pocket, 'Liza. I'll be right in. You must put
on a good warm shawl; 'tis as bad as rain, this fog is. The minister
wants you to come down to his house; he's at his wits' end, and there
was nobody we could think of that's free an' able except you. His
wife's gone, died at quarter to six, and left a mis'able baby; but the
doctor expects 't will live. The nurse they bargained with 's failed
'em, and 'tis an awful state o' things as you ever see. Half the women
in town are there, and the minister's overcome; he is sort of fainted
away two or three times, and they don't know who else to get, till the
doctor said your name, and he groaned right out you was the one.
'Tain't right to refuse, as l view it. Mis' Spence and Mis' Corbell is
going to watch with the dead, but there needs a head."

Eliza Peck felt for once as if she lacked that useful possession
herself, and sat down, with amazing appearance of calmness, in one of
her splint-bottomed chairs to collect her thoughts. The messenger was a
good deal excited; so was she; but in a few moments she rose, cutting
short his inconsequent description of affairs at the parsonage.

"You just put out the fire as best you can," she said. "We'll talk
as we go along. There's plenty o' ashes there, I'm sure; I let the
stove cool off considerable, for I was meanin' to go to bed in another
five minutes. The cat'll do well enough. I'll leave her plenty for
to-morrow, and she's got a place where she can creep [crep] in an' out
of the wood-shed. I'll just slip on another dress and put the nails
over the windows, an' we'll be right off." She was quite herself again
now; and, true to her promise, it was not many minutes before the door
was locked, the house left in darkness, and Ezra Weston and Miss Peck
were driving comfortably down the lane. The fog had all blown away,
suddenly the stars were out, and the air was sweet with the smell of
the wet bark of black birches and cherry and apple-trees that grew by
the fences. The leaves had fallen fast through the day, weighted by the
dampness until their feeble stems could keep them in place no longer;
for the bright colors of the foliage there had come at night sweet
odors and a richness of fragrance in the soft air.

Miss Peck did not respond; her sympathetic heart was dwelling on
the thought that she was going, not only to a house of mourning, but to
a bereft parsonage. She would not have felt so unequal to soothing the
sorrows of her every-day acquaintances, but she could hardly face the
duty of consoling the new minister. But she never once wished that she
had not consented so easily to respond to his piteous summons.

There was a strangely festive look in the village, for the exciting
news of Mrs. Elbury's death had flown from house to house - lights were
bright everywhere, and in the parsonage brightest of all. It looked as
if the hostess were receiving her friends, and helping them to make
merry, instead of being white and still, and done with this world,
while the busy women of the parish were pulling open her closets and
bureau drawers in search of household possessions. Nobody stopped to
sentimentalize over the poor soul's delicate orderliness, or the
simple, loving preparations she had made for the coming of the baby
which fretfully wailed in the next room.

"Here's a nice black silk that never was touched with the
scissors!" said one good dame, as if a kind Providence ought to have
arranged for the use of such a treasure in setting the bounds of the
dead woman's life.

"Does seem too bad, don't it? I always heard her folks was well
off," replied somebody in a loud whisper; "she had everything to live
for." There was great eagerness to be of service to the stricken
pastor, and the kind neighbors did their best to prove the extent of
their sympathy. One after another went to the room where he was, armed
with various excuses, and the story of his sad looks and distress was
repeated again and again to a grieved audience.

When Miss Peck came in she had to listen to a full description of
the day's events, and was decorously slow in assuming her authority;
but at last the house was nearly empty again, and only the watchers and
one patient little mother of many children, who held this motherless
child in loving arms, were left with Miss Peck in the parsonage. It
seemed a year since she had sat in her quiet kitchen, a solitary woman
whose occupations seemed too few and too trivial for her eager
capacities and ambitions.

The autumn days went by, winter set in early, and Miss Peck was
still mistress of the parsonage housekeeping. Her own cider was brought
to the parsonage, and so were the potatoes and the apples; even the cat
was transferred to a dull village existence, far removed in every way
from her happy hunting-grounds among the snow-birds and plump
squirrels. The minister's pale little baby loved Miss Peck and
submitted to her rule already. She clung fast to the good woman with
her little arms, and Miss Peck, who had always imagined that she did
not care for infants, found herself watching the growth of this spark
of human intelligence and affection with intense interest. After all,
it was good to be spared the long winter at the farm; it had never
occurred to her to dread it, but she saw now that it was a season to be
dreaded, and one by one forgot the duties which at first beckoned her
homeward and seemed so unavoidable. The farm-house seemed cold and
empty when she paid it an occasional visit. She would not have believed
that she could content herself so well away from the dear old home. If
she could have had her favorite little Tom within reach, life would
have been perfectly happy.

The minister proved at first very disappointing to her imaginary
estimate and knowledge of him. If it had not been for her sturdy
loyalty to him as pastor and employer, she could sometimes have joined
more or less heartily in the expressions of the disaffected faction
which forms a difficult element in every parish. Her sense of humor was
deeply gratified when the leader of the opposition remarked that the
minister was beginning to take notice a little, and was wearing his
best hat every day, like every other widower since the world was made.
Miss Peck's shrewd mind had already made sure that Mr. Elbury's loss
was not so great as she had at first sympathetically believed; she knew
that his romantic, ease-loving, self-absorbed, and self-admiring nature
had been curbed and held in check by the literal, prosaic,
faithful-in-little-things disposition of his dead wife. She was
self-denying, he was self-indulgent; she was dutiful, while he was
given to indolence - and the unfounded plea of ill-health made his only
excuse. Miss Peck soon fell into the way of putting her shoulder to the
wheel, and unobtrusively, even secretly, led the affairs of the parish.
She never was deaf to the explanation of the wearing effect of
brain-work, but accepted the weakness as well as the power of the
ministerial character; and nobody listened more respectfully to his
somewhat flowery and inconsequent discourses on Sunday than Miss Peck.
The first Sunday they went to church together Eliza slipped into her
own pew, half-way up the side aisle, and thought well of herself for
her prompt decision afterward, though she regretted the act for a
moment as she saw the minister stop to let her into the empty pew of
the parsonage. He had been sure she was just behind him, and gained
much sympathy from the congregation as he sighed and went his lonely
way up the pulpit-stairs. Even Mrs. Corbell, who had been averse to
settling the Rev. Mr. Elbury was moved by this incident, but directly
afterward whispered to her next neighbor that Lizy Peck would be
sitting there before the year was out if she had the business-head they
had all given her credit for.

It gives rise to melancholy reflections when one sees how quickly
those who have suffered most cruel and disturbing bereavements learn to
go their way alone. The great plan of our lives is never really broken
nor suffers accidents. However stunning the shock, one can almost
always understand gratefully that it was best for the vanished friend
to vanish just when he did; that this world held no more duties or
satisfactions for him; that his earthly life was in fact done and
ended. Our relations with him must be lifted to a new plane. Miss Peck
thought often of the minister's loss, and always with tender sympathy,
yet she could not help seeing that he was far from being unresigned or
miserable in his grief. She was ready to overlook the fact that he
depended upon his calling rather than upon his own character and
efforts. The only way in which she made herself uncongenial to the
minister was by persistent suggestions that he should take more
exercise and "stir about outdoors a little." Once, when she had gone so
far as to briskly inform him that he was getting logy, Mr. Elbury
showed entire displeasure; and a little later, in the privacy of the
kitchen, she voiced the opinion that Elizy Peck knew very well that she
never did think ministers were angels - only human beings, like
herself, in great danger of being made fools of. But the two good
friends made up their little quarrel at supper-time.

"I have been looking up the derivation of that severe word you
applied to me this noon," said the Reverend Mr. Elbury, pleasantly. "It
is a localism; but it comes from the Dutch word log, which means heavy
or unwieldy."

These words were pronounced plaintively, with evident consciousness
that they hardly applied to his somewhat lank figure; and Miss Peck
felt confused and rebuked, and went on pouring tea until both cup and
saucer were full, and she scalded the end of her thumb. She was very
weak in the hands of such a scholar as this, but later she had a
reassuring sense of not having applied the epithet unjustly. With a
feminine reverence for his profession, and for his attainments, she had
a keen sense of his human fallibility; and neither his grief, nor his
ecclesiastical halo, nor his considerate idea of his own value, could
blind her sharp eyes to certain shortcomings. She forgave them readily,
but she knew them all by sight and name.

If there were any gift of Mr. Elbury's which could be sincerely
called perfectly delightful by many people, it was his voice. When he
was in a hurry, and gave hasty directions to his housekeeper about some
mislaid possession, or called her down-stairs to stop the baby's
vexatious crying, the tones were entirely different from those best
known to the parish. Nature had gifted him with a power of carrying his
voice into the depths of his sympathetic being and recovering it again
gallantly. He had been considered the superior, in some respects, of
that teacher of elocution who led the students of the theological
seminary toward the glorious paths of oratory. There was a mellow
middle-tone, most suggestive of tender feeling; but though it sounded
sweet to other feminine ears, Miss Peck was always annoyed by it and
impatient of a certain artificial quality in its cadences. To hear Mr.
Elbury talk to his child in this tone, and address her as my motherless
babe, however affecting to other ears, was always unpleasant to Miss
Peck. But she thought very well of his preaching; and the more he let
all the decisions and responsibilities of every-day life fall to her
share, the more she enjoyed life and told her friends that Mr. Elbury
was a most amiable man to live with. And when spring was come the
hillside farm was let on shares to one of Miss Peck's neighbors whom
she could entirely trust. It was not the best of bargains for its
owner, who had the reputation of being an excellent farmer, and the
agreement cost her many sighs and not a little wakefulness. She felt
too much shut in by this village life; but the minister pleaded his
hapless lot, the little child was even more appealing in her babyhood,
and so the long visit from little Tom and his sisters, the familiar
garden, the three beehives, and the glory of the sunsets in the great,
unbroken, western sky were all given up together for that year.

It was not so hard as it might have been. There was one most
rewarding condition of life - the feast of books, which was new and
bewilderingly delightful to the minister's housekeeper. She had made
the most of the few well-chosen volumes of the farm-house, but she
never had known the joy of having more books than she could read, or
their exquisite power of temptation, the delight of their friendly
company. She was oftenest the student, the brain-wearied member, of the
parsonage-family, but she never made it an excuse, or really recognized
the new stimulus either. Life had never seemed so full to her; she was
working with both hands earnestly, and no half-heartedness. She was
filled with reverence in the presence of the minister's books; to her
his calling, his character, and his influence were all made positive
and respectable by this foundation of learning on his library-shelves.
He was to her a man of letters, a critic, and a philosopher, beside
being an experienced theologian from the very nature of his profession.
Indeed, he had an honest liking for books, and was fond of reading
aloud or being read to; and many an evening went joyfully by in the
presence of the great English writers, whose best thoughts were rolled
out in Mr. Elbury's best tones, and Miss Peck listened with delight,
and cast many an affectionate glance at the sleeping child in the
cradle at her feet, filled with gratitude as she was for all her
privileges. Mr. Elbury was most generous in his appreciation of Miss
Peck's devotion, and never hesitated to give expression to sincere
praise of her uncommon power of mind. He was led into paths of
literature, otherwise untrod, by her delight; and sometimes, to rest
his brain and make him ready for a good night's sleep, he asked his
companion to read him a clever story. It was all a new world to the
good woman whose schooling and reading had been sound, but restricted;
and if ever a mind waked up with joy to its possession of the world of
books, it was hers. She became ambitious for the increase of her own
little library; and it was in reply to her outspoken plan for larger
crops and more money from the farm another year, for the sake of
bookbuying, that Mr. Elbury once said, earnestly, that his books were
hers now. This careless expression was the spark which lit a new light
for Miss Peck's imagination. For the first time a thrill of personal
interest in the man made itself felt, through her devoted capacity for
service and appreciation. He had ceased to be simply himself; he stood
now for a widened life, a suggestion of added good and growth, a larger
circle of human interests; in fact, his existence had made all the
difference between her limited rural home and that connection with the
great world which even the most contracted parsonage is sure to hold.

And that very night, while Mr. Elbury had gone, somewhat ruefully
and ill-prepared, to his Bible class, Miss Peck's conscience set her
womanly weakness before it for a famous arraigning. It was so far
successful that words failed the defendant completely, and the session
was dissolved in tears. For some days Miss Peck was not only stern with
herself, but even with the minister, and was entirely devoted to her
domestic affairs.

The very next Sunday it happened that Mr. Elbury exchanged pulpits
with a brother-clergyman in the next large town, a thriving
manufacturing center, and he came home afterward in the best of
spirits. He never had seemed so appreciative of his comfortable home,
or Miss Peck's motherly desire to shield his weak nature from these
practical cares of life to which he was entirely inadequate. He was
unusually gay and amusing, and described, not with the best taste, the
efforts of two of his unmarried lady-parishioners to make themselves
agreeable. He had met them on the short journey, and did not hesitate
to speak of himself lightly as a widower; in fact, he recognized his
own popularity and attractions in a way that was not pleasing to Miss
Peck, yet she was used to his way of speaking and unaffectedly glad to
have him at home again. She had been much disturbed and grieved by her
own thoughts in his absence. She could not be sure whether she was wise
in drifting toward a nearer relation to the minister. She was not
exactly shocked at finding herself interested in him, but, with her
usual sense of propriety and justice, she insisted upon taking
everybody's view of the question before the weaker Miss Peck was
accorded a hearing. She was enraged with herself for feeling abashed
and liking to avoid the direct scrutiny of her fellow-parishioners.
Mrs. Corbell and she had always been the best of friends, but for the
first time Miss Peck was annoyed by such freedom of comment and
opinion. And Sister Corbell had never been so forward about spending
the afternoon at the parsonage, or running in for half-hours of gossip
in the morning, as in these latter days. At last she began to ask the
coy Eliza about her plans for the wedding, in a half-joking,
half-serious tone which was hard to bear.

"You're a sight too good for him," was the usual conclusion, "and
so I tell everybody. The whole parish has got it settled for you; and
there's as many as six think hard of you, because you've given 'em no
chance, bein' right here on the spot."

It seemed as if a resistless torrent of fate were sweeping our
independent friend toward the brink of a great change. She insisted to
the quailing side of her nature that she did not care for the minister
himself, that she was likely to age much sooner than he, with his
round, boyish face and plump cheeks. "They'll be takin' you for his
mother, Lizy, when you go amongst strangers, little and dried up as
you're gettin' to be a'ready; you're three years older anyway, and look
as if 'twas nine." Yet the capable, clear-headed woman was greatly
enticed by the high position and requirements of mistress of the
parsonage. She liked the new excitement and authority, and grew more
and more happy in the exercise of powers which a solitary life at the
farm would hardly arouse or engage. There was a vigorous growth of
independence and determination in Miss Peck's character, and she had
not lived alone so many years for nothing. But there was no outward
sign yet of capitulation. She was firmly convinced that the minister
could not get on without her, and that she would rather not get on
without him and the pleasure of her new activities. If possible, she
grew a little more self-contained and reserved in manner and speech,
while carefully anticipating his wants and putting better and better
dinners on the parochial table.

As for Mr. Elbury himself, he became more cheerful every day, and
was almost demonstrative in his affectionate gratitude. He spoke always
as if they were one in their desire to interest and benefit the parish;
he had fallen into a pleasant, home-like habit of saying "we" whenever
household or parish affairs were under discussion. Once, when somebody
had been remarking the too-evident efforts of one of her
sister-parishioners to gain Mr. Elbury's affection, he had laughed
leniently; but when this gossiping caller had gone away the minister
said, gently, "We know better, don't we Miss Peck?" and Eliza could not
help feeling that his tone meant a great deal. Yet she took no special
notice of him, and grew much more taciturn than was natural. Her heart
beat warmly under her prim alpacca-dress; she already looked younger
and a great deal happier than when she first came to live at the
parsonage. Her executive ability was made glad by the many duties that
fell upon her, and those who knew her and Mr. Elbury best thought
nothing could be wiser than their impending marriage. Did not the
little child need Miss Peck's motherly care? did not the helpless
minister need the assistance of a clear-sighted business-woman and good
housekeeper? did not Eliza herself need and deserve a husband? But even
with increasing certainty she still gave no outward sign of their
secret understanding. It was likely that Mr. Elbury thought best to
wait a year after his wife's death, and when he spoke right out was the
time to show what her answer would be. But somehow the thought of the
dear old threadbare farm in the autumn weather was always a sorrowful
thought; and on the days when Mr. Elbury hired a horse and wagon, and
invited her and the baby to accompany him on a series of parochial
visitations, she could not bear to look at the home-fields and the
pasture-slopes. She was thankful that the house itself was not in sight
from the main road. The crops that summer had been unusually good;
something called her thoughts back continually to the old home, and
accused her of disloyalty. Yet she consoled herself by thinking it was
very natural to have such regrets, and to consider the importance of
such a step at her sensible time of life. So it drew near winter again,
and she grew more and more unrelenting and scornful whenever her
acquaintances suggested the idea that her wedding ought to be drawing
near.

Mr. Elbury seemed to have taken a new lease of youthful hope and
ardor. He was busy in the parish and very popular, particularly among
his women-parishioners. Miss Peck urged him on with his good works, and
it seemed as if they expressed their interest in each other by their
friendliness to the parish in general. Mr. Elbury had joined a
ministers' club in the large town already spoken of, and spent a day
there now and then, besides his regular Monday-night attendance on the
club-meeting. He was preparing a series of sermons on the history of
the Jews, and was glad to avail himself of a good free-library, the
lack of which he frequently lamented in his own village. Once he said,
eagerly, that he had no idea of ending his days here, and this gave
Miss Peck a sharp pang. She could not bear to think of leaving her old
home, and the tears filled her eyes. When she had reached the shelter
of the kitchen, she retorted to the too-easily ruffled element of her
character that there was no need of crossing that bridge till she came
to it; and, after an appealing glance at the academy-steeple above the
maple-trees, she returned to the study to finish dusting. She saw,
without apprehension, that the minister quickly pushed something under
the leaves of his blotting-paper and frowned a little. It was not his
usual time for writing - she had a new proof of her admiring certainty
that Mr. Elbury wrote for the papers at times under an assumed name.

One Monday evening he had not returned from the ministers' meeting
until later than usual, and she began to be slightly anxious. The baby
had not been very well all day, and she particularly wished to have an
errand done before night, but did not dare to leave the child alone,
while, for a wonder, nobody had been in. Mr. Elbury had shown a great
deal of feeling before he went away in the morning, and as she was
admiringly looking at his well-fitting clothes and neat clerical
attire, a thrill of pride and affection had made her eyes shine
unwontedly. She was really beginning to like him very much. For the
first and last time in his life the minister stepped quickly forward
and kissed her on the forehead. "My good, kind friend!" he exclaimed,
in that deep tone which the whole parish loved; then he hurried away.
Miss Peck felt a strange dismay, and stood by the breakfast-table like
a statue. She even touched her forehead with trembling fingers. Somehow
she inwardly rebelled, but kissing meant more to her than to some
people. She never had been used to it, except with little Tom - though
the last brotherly kiss his father gave her before he went to the war
had been one of the treasures of her memory. All that day she was often
reminded of the responsible and darker side, the inspected and
criticized side, of the high position of minister's wife. It was
clearly time for proper rebuke when evening came; and as she sat by the
light, mending Mr. Elbury's stockings, she said over and over again
that she had walked into this with her eyes wide open, and if the
experience of forty years hadn't put any sense into her it was too late
to help it now.

Suddenly she heard the noise of wheels in the side yard. Could
anything have happened to Mr. Elbury? were they bringing him home hurt,
or dead even? He never drove up from the station unless it were bad
weather. She rushed to the door with a flaring light, and was
bewildered at the sight of trunks and, most of all, at the approach of
Mr. Elbury, for he wore a most sentimental expression, and led a young
person by the hand.

Almost any other woman would have dropped the kerosene lamp on the
doorstep, but not Miss Eliza Peck. Luckily a gust of autumn wind blew
it out, and the bride had to fumble her way into her new home. Miss
Peck quickly procured one of her own crinkly lamplighters, and bent
toward the open fire to kindle a new light.

"You've taken me by surprise," she managed to say, in her usual
tone of voice, though she felt herself shaking with excitement.

At that moment the ailing step-daughter gave a forlorn little wail
from the wide sofa, where she had been put to sleep with difficulty.
Miss Peck's kind heart felt the pathos of the situation; she lifted the
little child and stilled it, then she held out a kindly hand to the
minister's new wife, while Mr. Elbury stood beaming by.

"I wish you may be very happy here, as I have been," said the good
woman, earnestly. "But Mr. Elbury, you ought to have let me know. I
could have kept a secret." - and satisfaction filled Eliza Peck's heart
that she never, to use her own expression, had made a fool of herself
before the First Parish. She had kept her own secret, and in this
earthquake of a moment was clearly conscious that she was hero enough
to behave as if there had never been any secret to keep. And
indignation with the Reverend Mr. Elbury, who had so imprudently kept
his own counsel, threw down the sham temple of Cupid which a faithless
god called Propinquity had succeeded in rearing.

Miss Peck made a feast, and for the last time played the part of
hostess at the minister's table. She had remorselessly inspected the
conspicuous bad taste of the new Mrs. Elbury's dress, the waving,
cheap-looking feather of her hat, the make-believe richness of her
clothes, and saw, with dire compassion, how unused she was to young
children. The brave Eliza tried to make the best of things - but one
moment she found herself thinking how uncomfortable Mr. Elbury's home
would be henceforth with this poor reed to lean upon, a townish,
empty-faced, tiresomely pretty girl; the next moment she pitied the
girl herself, who would have the hard task before her of being the wife
of an indolent preacher in a country town. Miss Peck had generously
allowed her farm to supplement the limited salary of the First Parish;
in fact, she had been a silent partner in the parsonage establishment
rather than a dependent. Would the First Parish laugh at her now? It
was a stinging thought; but she honestly believed that the minister
himself would be most commiserated when the parish opinion had found
time to simmer down.

The next day our heroine, whose face was singularly free from
disappointment, told the minister that she would like to leave at once,
for she was belated about many things, not having had notice in season
of his change of plan.

"I've been telling your wife all about the house and parish
interests the best I can, and it's likely she wants to take everything
into her own hands right away," added the uncommon housekeeper, with a
spice of malice; but Mr. Elbury flushed, and looked down at the short,
capable Eliza appealingly. He knew her virtues so well that this
announcement gave him a crushing blow.

"Why, I thought of course you would continue here as usual," he
said, in a strange, harsh voice that would have been perfectly
surprising in the pulpit. "Mrs. Elbury has never known any care. We
count upon your remaining."

Whereupon Miss Peck looked him disdainfully in the face, and, for a
moment, mistook him for that self so often reproved and now sunk into
depths of ignominy.

"If you thought that, you ought to have known better," she said.
"You can't expect a woman who has property and relations of her own to
give up her interests for yours altogether. I got a letter this morning
from my brother's boy, little Tom, and he's got leave from his mother
and her husband to come and stop with me a good while - he says all
winter. He's been sick, and they've had to take him out o' school. I
never supposed that such stived-up air would agree with him," concluded
Miss Peck, triumphantly. She was full of joy and hope at this new turn
of affairs, and the minister was correspondingly hopeless. "I'll take
the baby home for a while, if 't would be a convenience for you," she
added, more leniently. "That is, after I get my house well warmed, and
there's something in it to eat. I wish you could have spoken to me a
fortnight ago; but I saw Joe Farley to-day - that boy that lived with
me quite a while - he's glad to come back. He only engaged to stop till
after cider time where he's been this summer, and he's promised to look
about for a good cow for me. I always thought well of Joe."

The minister turned away ruefully, and Miss Peck went about her
work. She meant to leave the house in the best of order; but the whole
congregation came trooping in that day and the next, and she hardly had
time to build a fire in her own kitchen before Joe Farley followed her
from the station with the beloved little Tom. He looked tall and thin
and pale, and largely freckled under his topknot of red hair. Bless his
heart! how his lonely aunt hugged him and kissed him, and how thankful
he was to get back to her, though she never would have suspected it if
she had not known him so well. A shy boy-fashion of reserve and
stolidity had replaced his early demonstrations, but he promptly went
to the shelf of books to find the familiar old "Robinson Crusoe" Miss
Peck's heart leaped for joy as she remembered how much more she could
teach the child about books. She felt a great wave of gratitude fill
her cheerful soul as she remembered the pleasure and gain of those
evenings when she and Mr. Elbury had read together.

There was a great deal of eager discussion in the village; and much
amused scrutiny of Eliza's countenance, as she walked up the side aisle
that first Sunday after the minister was married. She led little Tom by
the hand, but he opened the pew-door and ushered her in handsomely, and
she looked smilingly at her neighbors and nodded her head sideways at
the boy in a way that made them suspect that she was much more in love
with him, freckles and all, than she had ever been with Mr. Elbury. A
few minutes later she frowned at Tom sternly for greeting his old
acquaintances over the pew-rail in a way that did not fit the day or
place. There was no chance to laugh at her disappointment; for nobody
could help understanding that her experience at the parsonage had been
merely incidental in her life, and that she had returned willingly to
her old associations. The dream of being a minister's wife had been
only a dream, and she was surprised to find herself waking from it with
such resignation to her lot.

"I'd just like to know what sort of a breakfast they had," she said
to herself, as the bride's topknot went waving and bobbing up to the
parsonage pew. "If ever there was a man who was fussy about his cup o'
coffee, 'tis Reverend Wilbur Elbury! There now, Elizy Peck, don't you
wish 'twas you a-setting there up front and feeling the eyes of the
whole parish sticking in your back? You could have had him, you know,
if you'd set right about it. I never did think you had proper ideas of
what gettin' promoted is; but if you ain't discovered a new world for
yourself like C'lumbus, I miss my guess. If you'd stayed on the farm
all alone last year you'd had no thoughts but hens and rutabagys, and
as 'tis you've been livin' amon'st books. There's nothin' to regret if
you did just miss makin' a fool o' yourself."

At this moment Mr. Elbury's voice gently sounded from the pulpit,
and Miss Peck sprang to her feet with the agility of a jack-in-the-box
- she had forgotten her surroundings in the vividness of her revery.
She hardly knew what the minister said in that first prayer; for many
reasons this was an exciting day.

A little later our heroine accepted the invitation of her second
cousin, Mrs. Corbell, to spend the hour or two between morning and
afternoon services. They had agreed that it seemed like old times, and
took pleasure in renewing this custom of the Sunday visit. Little Tom
was commented upon as to health and growth and freckles and family
resemblance; and when he strayed out-of-doors, after such an early
dinner as only a growing boy can make vanish with the enchanter's wand
of his appetite, the two women indulged in a good talk.

"I don't know how you viewed it, this morning," began Cousin
Corbell; "but, to my eyes, the minister looked as if he felt cheap as a
broom. There, I never was one o' his worshipers, you well know. To
speak plain, Elizy, I was really concerned at one time for fear you
would be over-persuaded. I never said one word to warp your judgment,
but I did feel as if 'twould be a shame. I" -

But Miss Peck was not ready yet to join the opposition, and she
interrupted at once in an amiable but decided tone. "We'll let by-gones
be by-gones; it's just as well, and a good deal better. Mr. Elbury
always treated me the best he knew how; and I knew he wa'n't perfect,
but 'twas full as much his misfortune as his fault. I declare I don't
know what else there was he could ha' done if he hadn't taken to
preaching; and he has very kind feelings, specially if any one's in
trouble. Talk of 'leading about captive silly women,' there are some
cases where we've got to turn round and say it right the other way -
'tis the silly women that do the leadin' themselves. And I tell you,"
concluded Miss Peck, with apparent irrelevancy, "I was glad last night
to have a good honest look at a yellow sunset. If ever I do go and set
my mind on a minister, I'm going to hunt for one that's well settled in
a hill parish. I used to feel as if I was shut right in, there at the
parsonage; it's a good house enough, if it only stood where you could
see anything out of the windows. I can't carry out my plans o' life in
any such situation."

"I expect to hear that you've blown right off the top o' your hill
some o' these windy days," said Mrs. Corbell, without resentment,
though she was very dependent, herself, upon seeing the passing.

The church bell began to ring, and our friends rose to put on their
bonnets and answer its summons. Miss Peck's practical mind revolved the
possibility of there having been a decent noonday meal at the
parsonage. "Maria Corbell!" she said, with dramatic intensity, "mark
what I'm goin' to say - it ain't I that's goin' to reap the whirlwind;
it's your pastor, the Reverend Mr. Elbury, of the First Parish!"